The Woodlands Township approves tax abatement for Alight

These maps and renderings show the area where a new four-story office building and multi-level parking garage are planned. The building would be owned by The Woodlands Development Company/Howard Hughes Corp. but rented out to Alight Solutions, a human resources firm with more than 900 employees.

These maps and renderings show the area where a new four-story office building and multi-level parking garage are planned. The building would be owned by The Woodlands Development Company/Howard Hughes Corp.

These maps and renderings show the area where a new four-story office building and multi-level parking garage are planned. The building would be owned by The Woodlands Development Company/Howard Hughes Corp. but rented out to Alight Solutions, a human resources firm with more than 900 employees.

These maps and renderings show the area where a new four-story office building and multi-level parking garage are planned. The building would be owned by The Woodlands Development Company/Howard Hughes Corp.

The Woodlands Township has approved a tax abatement request for Alight Solutions, a locally based local human resources company.

The company, which employs more than 950 people in The Woodlands, is currently housed in office building off Technology Forest Boulevard, but is moving to a new location office complex on New Trails Drive that is going to be constructed by The Woodlands Development Co., a subsidiary of the Howard Hughes Corp.

Alight’s proposed building as costing more than $34 million and if successful, will lead to the retention of at least 950 jobs with a salary base of $47 million in annual payroll for the next 10 years, according to documents provided to the township. The abatement means the company will not pay taxes in the first seven years and will receive an 80 percent abatement in year eight, 60 percent abatement in year nine and 40 percent tax abatement in year 10.

The new four-story, 180,000 square foot office building along with a multi-story parking garage along New Trails Drive in The Woodlands has caused concern from some local residents who say the new building will impact their lives and quality of life. Numerous residents of Founder’s Reserve — which is not inside the boundaries of The Woodlands Township and is in unincorporated county land — attended previous meetings to express their concern with the project, notably that a forest buffer behind homes would be removed.

The tax abatement was approved by a 3-1 vote on Thursday. Directors John Anthony Brown and Bruce Rieser recused themselves because of conflicts of interest. Brown said he was not able to vote in the item because his wife is an employee of Alight Solutions, while Rieser had backed out of the discussions because he owns a significant amount of stock in Alight Solutions parent company, Blackstone. Chairman Gordy Bunch did not attend the meeting.

Township directors Ann Snyder, Carol Stromatt and Brian Boniface voted in favor of the abatement while Director John McMullan cast the lone no vote.

McMullan has expressed his disdain for tax abatements during several meetings in recent months, arguing with Snyder and Stromatt during one meeting where the township board was discussing whether or to continue offering the tax breaks to large corporations, and then in a meeting in March when the Alight Solutions abatement request was first announced. On Thursday, he reiterated his objections.

“What I think we see in The Woodlands is a lot of these mom and pop businesses are closing. We don’t intervene with those small businesses, we only do (abatements) on behalf of large businesses,” McMullan said. “I think we’re past the point to use tax breaks to bring businesses here. Obviously, I’m voting no on this. We have reached the point where these kind of incentives are not needed in this community.”

Snyder has disagreed with McMullan during each of the previous debates on tax abatements and their value, and on Thursday she made the motion to approve the tax abatement for Alight Solutions and explained her thoughts on the process.

“It sends a strong message (to the business world) if the board does vote for the (Alight) abatement,” Snyder said, also noting that she had met with local residents in the Founder’s Reserve neighborhood who have protested the construction of the new multi-story office building and a parking garage.

“If I lived (in Founder’s Reserve), I’d be standing right there (motioned to podium) saying, ‘don’t do this,’ but it is happening,” Snyder said.

On Thursday, a Founder’s Reserve resident named Neil Crawford spoke during public comment, eloquently telling the board members that he was not present to oppose the tax abatement request from Alight nor to try to stop the office building, but merely to ask for help in maintaining some semblance of normalcy to the neighborhood.

“As of Wednesday (April 17), most of the tree canopy was removed,” Crawford said. “I hope this is not a sign of things to come (across the township).”

Crawford asked for assurances that a significant buffer of at least 23 feet was maintained and that fencing built by The Woodlands Development Company was tall enough to prevent light pollution in homes.

Tiffany Dunne-Oldfield, who has been appointed as a spokesperson for the Founder’s Reserve community, said in an email to The Villager that tree clearing has already started.

“Yesterday (April 16), most of the tree canopy behind our homes was removed, which was heartbreaking for our entire community. Right now, our best hope is for a solid fence — in keeping with the aesthetics of our community — as well as extensive reforestation. We’re really hoping that township directors will push for reassurances on these points before they vote on the abatement,” she said in her email. “Currently, we are being told that the Alight parking lot will sit approximately 26 feet from our back fence and 45-50 feet from the back windows and doors of our homes. To put that in perspective, cars will be able to park about three-quarters the length of a bowling alley from our back windows.”